Make a rainbow fall at our feet 🌈 tell us about our mistakes, typos, and other oversights

[GinoG]

SN 16, section 9, “The Deaths in Natika,” in 8th paragraph:

… Bhadda, and and Subhadda had ended the five lower fetters. …

Note repeated ‘and’ before the name Subhadda.

[sabbamitta]

MN70:20.1: Katamo ca, bhikkhave, puggalo dhammānusārī?
And what person is a follower of teachings?

MN70:20.4: Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, puggalo dhammānusārī.
This person is called a follower of principles.

A dhammānusārī is generally a “follower of teachings”, but in this one segment in MN70 it’s a “follower of principles”.

[calvin]

In MN60, the title Apaṇṇakasutta is translated as “Guaranteed” in the preview here, but rendered as “Unfailing” inside the content here.

[Snowbird]

@calvin

but rendered as “Unfailing” inside the content

As far as I understand, suttas are given translated titles that are the “default” when the user selects a specific language for the interface. Then individual translators are free to give suttas whatever title they want.

So for example I believe that Ven. @Sabbamitta has translated all text titles into German (maybe based on the English?). What she chooses to use for her sutta translations may be different, though.

So it’s not a bug, just an artifact of a site that can contain more than one translation into specific languages.

[calvin]

That would make a lot of sense! Thank you Venerable for the clarification

[Astus]

Typo in SuttaCentral
didease → disease

[sabbamitta]

AN9.39:7.2: Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, ‘bhikkhu antamakāsi māraṁ, apadaṁ vadhitvā māracakkhuṁ adassanaṁ gato pāpimato tiṇṇo loke visattikan’ti.
At such a time they are called a mendicant who has blinded Māra, put out his eyes without a trace, and gone where the Wicked One cannot see.

“At such a time” is not in the Pali. Again in segment 8.5.

[Astus]

Titles at the beginning and throughout SN 31 translate gandhabba as fairy, while in the suttas it’s centaur.

[Snowbird]

The comment I just made here kind of explains what is going on, however I did find that with this sutta the translator’s title indeed does not match the translation.

But it’s honestly not easy to tell when something is a site wide title and when it is the translator’s title. For example, I think the second line of text (“1. FAIRIES”) is the site wide title translation.

[Nevs4511]

“Iwas on the road and about to give birth.,
“Upavijaññā gacchantī,

Stray full stop?
https://suttacentral.net/thig10.1/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=linebyline&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

[mikenz66]

In AN5.26 (and possibly others with similar sequences), the that in the fifth opportunity sounds a little clumsy.

The first opportunity is:

Firstly, the Teacher or a respected spiritual companion teaches Dhamma to a mendicant.
That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, …

And in the next three “that Dhamma” also works fine.

However, in the fifth it sounds odd:

But a meditation subject as a basis of immersion is properly grasped, focused on, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom.
That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how a meditation subject as a basis of immersion is properly grasped, focused on, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom.

This may be just a problem with the abbreviation. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation writes it in full:

(5) “Again, neither the Teacher nor a fellow monk in the position of a teacher teaches the Dhamma to a bhikkhu, nor does he teach the Dhamma to others in detail as he has heard it and learned it, nor does he recite the Dhamma in detail as he has heard it and learned it, nor does he ponder, examine, and mentally inspect the Dhamma as he has heard it and learned it, but he has grasped well a certain object of concentration, attended to it well, sustained it well, and penetrated it well with wisdom. In whatever way the bhikkhu has grasped well a certain object of concentration, attended to it well, sustained it well, and penetrated it well with wisdom, in just that way, in relation to that Dhamma, he experiences inspiration in the meaning and inspiration in the Dhamma.

So, I gather that in this case, that Dhamma means the meditation subject that has been: penetrated well with wisdom.

[sabbamitta]

MN101:24.7: “Amu hi, bhante, puriso amussā itthiyā sāratto paṭibaddhacitto tibbacchando tibbāpekkho.
Because that man is in love that woman, full of intense desire and lust.”

Should be “in love with that woman”.

---

MN28:23.5: Phassaṁ paṭicca.
Dependent on contact.

There should be a closing quote after “contact”. It is lacking in the Pali too, but is there in segment 8.5.

---

Compare these two:

AN7.66:7.7: Pañcamassa, bhikkhave, sūriyassa pātubhāvā aṅgulipabbamattampi mahāsamudde udakaṁ na hoti.
When the fifth sun appears there’s not even enough water in the great ocean to wet a toe-joint.

and

MN28:12.7: Hoti kho so, āvuso, samayo, yaṁ mahāsamudde aṅgulipabbatemanamattampi udakaṁ na hoti.
There comes a time when there isn’t enough water in the ocean even to wet the tip of your finger.

I opt for the toe here, given that in the preceding segment the water goes down from waist to knee to ankle.

(I just learned that in Pali, “toe” and “finger” are the same word.)

---

Comment to MN1:51.1:

The “perfected one” is the arahant, literally “worthy one”, who is the Buddhist spiritual ideal. Their direct knowing is so powerful that it has cut through all fetters bindings them to transmigration.

Should be “all fetters binding them to transmigration” (remove “s”).

[sujato]

Hi everyone, and thanks to all those who have contributed! I’ll be working through these suggestions for the next little while. Let’s go!

@sabbamitta

DN14:1.13.2: “acchariyaṁ, āvuso, abbhutaṁ, āvuso, tathāgatassa mahiddhikatā mahānubhāvatā.
“It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing! The Realized One has such psychic power and might!

It’s āvuso here, not bhante.

Right.

@sabbamitta

What’s the subtle difference between “conceiving” and “conceit”?

SN 35.248:3.1 has “conceiving” (maññita), segment 7.1 of the same Sutta has “conceit” (mānagata).

None really, just parts of speech.

@Snowbird

I wonder if for the repetion serieses you would consider putting something in the “Tell in full” instructions that indicated what was actually different. I’m thinking in particular for when the text is consumed outside of the SC website context. Even on the site itself it’s not obvious what is to be done.

Would it be possible to make a Github issue with this, spelling out what you think the appropriate action would be?

@sabbamitta

Buddhānasāsana (sometimes spelled as one word, sometimes as two) is sometimes translated “instruction of the Buddha” (Singular), sometimes “instructions of the Buddha” (Plural).

It’s singular when referencing a specific teaching, plural when used in general. As far as I can see it’s used correctly, but do let me know if there are any exceptions to this.

@Sunyo

vicāra isn’t mentioned, only vitakka

Thanks.

@bran

it uses both “suppose there was” and “suppose there were”

Thanks, fixed.

@sabbamitta

“material” has been changed to “of the flesh”, except for the neutral feeling

Thanks, fixed all these.

@sabbamitta

In AN3.93:6.13 “grounded in the essential” has been changed to “established in the pith”.

It’s a tricky idiom, because it’s used of a chariot wheel, an assembly, and a crop. Now I use “consolidated in the core” in all cases.

@Jasudho

for word definitions regarding punabbhavābhinibbattiyā

This is probably fixed with the update to using DPD.

@sabbamitta

One could suspect that these texts have been translated while there have been some outages of Bilara where commits were not properly saved. All subsequent Cp texts are complete.

Indeed yes, I have completed these now.

@sabbamitta

What is an “embrella”?

It’s either a typo, or else a shelter from the rain that is as wide as a capital letter M. Who can say?

@sabbamitta

Add closing single quote mark.

Done, thanks.

@Vimala

However, the pali mentions water here. Several translators have changed this to earth. So is this an error in the pali???

No, it’s correct, it’s actually based on the belief that the earth rests on water so earthquakes are caused by a disturbance in the water element. I’ve added a note.

@Danny

Anuruddha should be Ananda?

Indeed, thanks.

@Sunyo

I was just a brahmin by lineage, now I am a brahmin by insight.

Right, good point. I’ll render “brahmin by kin” to keep consistency, and distinguish from brahmajacco.

@Sunyo

After death I will be that

Oh right, great point, that makes it even more Upanishadic. I had assumed the so here was the pleonastic, but you’re right.

(It seems to me this is a subtle aspect of Indic grammar exploited by the Upanishads. The humble pronoun, so ubiquitous and leached of meaning, is everywhere without being noticed, even dismissed as mere superfluity. Yet it is that which is the hidden divinity in all things.)

I’ve accepted the rest of your suggestions, even the annoying correct one about that/which!

@Vaddha

The problem here is the abbreviation and translation of atikkamma.

These are really good points, thanks. I’ve hopefully fixed the problem, making the translation stick more closely to the text.

@Radius

AN7.54 “…it’s an conceiving…” → “…it’s a conceiving…”

excellent, thanks.

@Radius

I don’t read pali, but by pattern comparison with other lines I suspect it might be…
Not understanding etc etc

@sujato

Now, the sentence begins with a negative (na ca), but this applies to the sentence as a whole, negating the final clause. Literally:

On review, I think you’re right and I’m wrong. The phrase can be read in isolation either way, but in context the previous sentence says they did not examine the meaning.

@sood

but should be middle watch of the night.

Indeed, a careless error!

@sabbamitta

The queen in Cp 9 is sometimes spelled Maddi, sometimes Maddī.

Spell Maddī throught.

Incidentally, the conjunction of the names Kanha and Maddi here suggest this has an echo of the story of Krishna and his wife Madri, for which see note on dn3:1.23.8.

@Danny

The first part ‘having developed loving kindness for seven years’ is left out of the translation somehow.

Interesting, where the phrase appears at an7.62:1.5, the mention of seven years meditation is in the previous sentence, so I abbreviated it. But the Iti lacks that previous sentence.

@Radius

“Likelwise” → “Likewise” in the overview

Thanks.

@Danny

The part ‘after the rainy season the sky is clear and cloudless’ is not in the Pali

Right it’s been copied over from sn2.29.

@LaiLing

AN6.67 not sure if minor omission

Right, thanks.

@LaiLing

*fulfilled (word missing)?

Indeed, thanks, very careful reading you’re doing there!

@sabbamitta

What on earth are we to understand by a “corded heart”?

ha ha, good question!

Well, according to the commentary it’s either the flesh of the heart, which is wrapped like a cord around the heart-essence. Or it’s the heart-flesh plus the “cords” (i.e. arteries, etc.). Or if we look to sanskrit it is “captivating the heart”, but that’s surely inapplicable here.

Change to:

bones, and heart with cords:

@sabbamitta

In MN 140 adhiṭṭhāna is usually translated as “foundation” (segments 7.1, 11.1, 11.3, 11.4, 25.1, 27.3, 28.7). Only in segment 26.3 it has recently been changed to “resolve”, “the ultimate resolve of truth”.

Use foundation throughout, see note on mn140:11.3.

@Paliaudio.com

AN 6.55 Sona - does “the lot” needs to be removed

No, it renders kevalā.

@sabbamitta

One line ends with a comma, next line starts with a capital.

Thx, fixed.

@Bloom77

Hello, this is my first post on this forum

Welcome, thanks for helping out.

@Bloom77

The english summary of SN 22.136 is “The aggregates are like hot coals.” Shouldn’t it be “The aggregates are like burning chuff”?

Yes, it’s a bit on an unclear word, dictionaries give both meanings, but it seems the dominant sense in Sanskrit is “burning chaff” so I adopt that.

@tracy

mn76:21.3 “they encounters”

Oops, thanks.

@666tomanderson

… they gets no almsfood … they encounters a wild elephant …

Again, thanks.

@sabbamitta

brāhma and related terms to “divine”. The title of Iti 100 is still “The Holy Offering of the Teaching” for brāhmaṇadhammayāga, which is also the name of the entire chapter.

In fact both are incorrect. It’s brāhmaṇa, i.e. “brahmin”, in reference to where the Buddha calls himself a brahmin. It should be, “the Brahmin’s offering of the Teaching”.

@sabbamitta

I think this should be “a true person and an even truer person”.

Indeed, yes.

@Brahmali

Bhante, is there a nice way setting apart segments 2.7.4 to 2.7.7 (of bhikkhu pācittiya 1) so that we can get rid of the awkward parentheses?

Is this a unique case? I’d be wary about introducing a coding specification for just a single instance. I dunno, the brackets look fine to me. But it does look like the Pali has an error of displaced text, so if the source is clumsy, the translation should also be clumsy.

@Snowbird

Should say “who is not”

Indeed it should!

@sabbamitta

say they really are a true person

use this one.

@sabbamitta

The same thing is sometimes called “judgment”, sometimes “judgement”.

Annoyingly, my browser spellcheck says both are correct. Use judgment.

@sabbamitta

Why is nāga in Cp not translated as “dragon”?

No idea, use “dragon”.

@sabbamitta

Bhojaputto is translated “of the Bhoja people” in SN 2.26:3.1, whereas in AN 4.45:4.1 it is “son of Bhoja”.

It’s consistent now, but I may need to revise this in light of my recent realization that this is the “red horse” i.e. “sunbeam”, i.e. an attribute of Agni.

[Snowbird]

@sujato

Would it be possible to make a Github issue with this, spelling out what you think the appropriate action would be?

I guess I’m not even sure. Other than that the current message is kind of useless and doesn’t give a good sense of how the text should be re-created. So for the case of the one I pointed out would it just be something like “replacing all mentions of noble eightfold path with five powers”?

If no one else has ever brought it up as a problem, maybe it doesn’t really matter.

(BTW, in the latest bug thread, I went through and reviewed all the issues to that point in this post. You might want to start there if you are going to review that thread.)

[Brahmali]

@sujato

But it does look like the Pali has an error of displaced text

It seems to be a commentarial gloss intruding in the Canonical text. So I suppose that’s a kind of displacement. To be honest, I am not too bothered.

@666tomanderson, do you have any comment?

[sujato]

@Meggers

the Indian scholar Dr. Benimadhab Barua certainly takes Addhariya to be Aitareya.

I think Barua’s work is superseded by that of Wijesekera and Jayatilleke. Addhariya is from sanskrit Adhvaryu, namely the priests who performed the ritual actions at the sacrifice, whose text is the Śatapatha, in which they are called by this name constantly. I’ve recently expanded that note:

Identified by Wijesekera (A Pali Reference to Brāhmaṇa-Caraṇas, Adyar Library Bulletin, vol 20, 1956; reprinted in Buddhist and Vedic Studies) and Jayatilleke (Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, p. 480). I use the familiar Sanskrit forms, as the Pali has several dubious spellings and variants. Their texts and corresponding Vedas are respectively: Adhvaryu = Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (incl. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad; White Yajur Veda); Taittirīya = Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (Black Yajur Veda); Chāndogya = Chāndogya Brāhmaṇa (Sāman Veda); Cāndrāyaṇa = Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa (Rig Veda; spelling established by Wijesekera; see below at dn13:16.2); Bahvṛca = Bahvṛca Brāhmaṇa (Rig Veda; incorporated in Aitareya and Kauśītaki.) This is the only time the Pali canon mentions these schools, but in some cases we can identify them with brahmins in the canon. Examples include the murmuring Chāndogya brahmin (ud1.4); or the Buddha’s former teachers, who evidently hailed from the Addhariya tradition of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (mn26:15.1ff.). | Jayatilleke notes that the Śatapatha describes its own adherents as Adhvaryu (addhariyā), those priests of the Yajur Veda responsible for the physical acts at the ritual.

@Khemarato.bhikkhu

Should be were

I’ve changed it.

@sabbamitta

Even if the Pali doesn’t have it, I think there should be a closing (single) quote mark

Yes.

@sabbamitta

Does “kingship” have a plural?

It does now!

@sabbamitta

Lost in a sea?

Lost at sea

@sabbamitta

I believe the quote should only close at segment 8.4.

right.

@sabbamitta

That would be “Black the black”?

Sure, sometimes use both original and translation.

@WayChuang

Hebecomes disenchanted with the body

ok, fixed.

@sabbamitta

Intention or thought? Perhaps thought is better in this context.

Indeed, yes.

@Nicolas

In Mil 3.3.5 (Rhys Davids), in the first sentence, “conditions” should be “Confections”.

I’m not sure about that, generally we don’t touch our legacy translations. You’re right that the original has Confections, but at some point someone has modernized it with “conditions” instead, but applied inconsistently.

Better use the new translation (ongoing) by John Kelly:

SuttaCentral

@sabbamitta

I am wondering if “identity” is here the best translation for sakkāya. According to the dictionary it can also mean a “body”. As the next line continues with the body, would it not fit better to say “body” here?

As for “body”, no, it basically just means “reborn in some form or another”, namely the five aggregates, which is what the commentary says. Perhaps “substantial forms”.

@sabbamitta

Accuta has been translated “imperishable” in Thag 1.1 and SN 22.95, and “unchanging” in Thag 2.46.

Hmm, best reserve “perishable” for vipariṇāmadhamma, use “not liable to pass away” for acavanadhamma and “state that does not pass” for accutaṁ padaṁ (or ṭhānaṁ).

@sabbamitta

“two-handled saw” is lacking in translation.

Thanks. Also, the idiom should be “two-handed saw”!

@sabbamitta

This same sentence is translated in segment 24.3 of the same Sutta:

That’s fixed already.

@sabbamitta

“A sharp meat cleaver” is lacking in translation

Okay.

@sabbamitta

Should be “taking pleasure wherever they land”—beings are plural.

Indeed they are. This seems to be a unique case, normally it is craving that takes pleasure.

@sabbamitta

The same passage occurs in MN 140. In both cases, there is no translation for the last part, yaṁ vā panaññampi kiñci ajjhattaṁ paccattaṁ ākāsaṁ ākāsagataṁ, aghaṁ aghagataṁ, vivaraṁ vivaragataṁ, asamphuṭṭhaṁ, maṁsalohitehi upādinnaṁ.

This is an unwarranted passage, imported in MS from the Abhidhamma and absent in most editions.

@sabbamitta

In MN 62, vāyodhātu is translated “air element”, but further down in segments 16.2-5, vāyo is translated “wind” (as is in the parallel passage in AN 9.11).

Honestly we should probably translate vayo as “wind” everywhere. I’ll review this, but leave it for now.

[sabbamitta]

Big sadhu for revising all those!

@sujato

On review, I think you’re right and I’m wrong. The phrase can be read in isolation either way, but in context the previous sentence says they did not examine the meaning.

In AN8.78:6.6 the “not” should still be inserted.

And I think similar cases are in AN10.83, AN8.82, and AN9.19.

@sujato

Incidentally, the conjunction of the names Kanha and Maddi here suggest this has an echo of the story of Krishna and his wife Madri, for which see note on dn3:1.23.8.

@sujato

In fact both are incorrect. It’s brāhmaṇa, i.e. “brahmin”, in reference to where the Buddha calls himself a brahmin.

Ah, right!

@sujato

It’s consistent now, but I may need to revise this in light of my recent realization that this is the “red horse” i.e. “sunbeam”, i.e. an attribute of Agni.

[sabbamitta]

@sujato

@sabbamitta

Does “kingship” have a plural?

It does now!

Amazing! In German it does not. The word exists only in singular.

@sujato

Hmm, best reserve “perishable” for vipariṇāmadhamma, use “not liable to pass away” for acavanadhamma and “state that does not pass” for accutaṁ padaṁ (or ṭhānaṁ).

In Thag 2.46, accuta is still “unchanging”.

@sujato

This is an unwarranted passage, imported in MS from the Abhidhamma and absent in most editions.

Interesting—I think I didn’t even realize this. But in MN140, “or anything else internal, pertaining to an individual, that’s space, spacious, and appropriated” is lacking.

Thank you again for all your amazing work!

[sujato]

@sabbamitta

or anything else internal, pertaining to an individual, that’s space, spacious, and appropriated

Thanks, I’ve fixed those cases. Also I’ve adjusted the syntax of this passage a little in MN 62, I’ll apply it globaly when I get some time next week.